Philly Comedy Community

Jake Zenak enters The Raven Lounge on Samson Street in Center City, Philadelphia on April 14, 2022. The bar hosts a comedy showcase and open mic on their second floor every Thursday. The Raven Lounge is one of the longest running mics in the city.

Philly Comedy Community

By Shane Gibbons

To cover Philadelphia’s comedy scene, I attempted to visit an open mic every weekday, but came up short only making it Monday through Thursday.

I started my exploration at The Raven Lounge, the only place I had prior experience with, after my roommate Jake Zenak had done an Open Mic there a few weeks prior.

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Raven Lounge holds two shows, one at nine and the other at eleven.

Immediately the sense of community is palpable.

After someone does their set, they are embraced by their peers as they walk down off the stage. Outside the bar itself, the comics line the street and chat with one another.

Here I was able to get information about future upcoming open mics, including the most up to date spreadsheet of mics from Drew Pabhsky, a comic and teacher from New Jersey.

Lemaire Lee embraces Brandon Mitchell after his set at The Raven Lounge on Thursday April 14, 2022. Typically every set ends with some form of acknowledgment from the host and applause from the crowd.

Comics and friends gather across the street from The Ravenge Lounge after the conclusion of the first show on Thursday April 21, 2022.

Many of the same comics appear at various rooms and clubs across the city, building a sense of community with one another. Fresh air is also much needed after sitting in the hot second floor room of The Raven.

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Sam Simonville, KeithFromUpDaBlock, and Andrea Darden pose at The Comedy Jawn at Saint Lazarus Bar in Fishtown, on Monday April 18, 2022. Andrea handles the business side of Ruffin Vision Network LLC, including promotion, administrative responsibilities for Philadelphia Comedy College, and handling funds.

Mondays are at Comedy Jawn at Saint Lazarus Bar in Fishtown, hosted by KeithFromUpDaBlock (Vernon Keith Ruffin Jr).

Keith describes himself as a multi hyphenated entertainer. He has been locally famous since hosting “Urban X-pressions”, a Philadelphia based music video show between 1996 and 2008. Since then his career has continued to grow, recently playing the role of Fredrich Douglas in the Emmy award winning series “Lincoln: Divided We Stand”, and appearing in “Mindhunter”.

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Keith explained that you can not get any more Philly than the Comedy Jawn. The show began in New York four years ago, as a safe hub for Philly comics to come, try out their material and network. The show stayed in New York for about a year then moved to Philly and became even bigger.

The Comedy Jawn, and the other places I visited are what is called a “room”. These are places, usually bars or lounges, that are not specifically designed for comedy, and host mics.

Rooms typically are produced and organized by Comedians. Rooms provide benefits on both sides. Bars agree to this to bring in a crowd on a week day that would not typically be busy, and sell some drinks. Organizers of rooms use it as an opportunity to work on their own material, provide a space for other comedians, and potentially receive some form of bar cut. Keith commented that recently Philly has experienced a room boom. Outside of rooms there are clubs (Helium and Punch Line) and venues.

When asked what makes Philly comedy unique, Keith mirrored similar thoughts to Chris Gethard who wrote in Vice that “ Kids there [Philly] have a real chip on their shoulder and are always ready for a battle.” Keith takes a much more positive stance to this chip however.

He acknowledges that yes at times you may be at odds with your audience, and there is much more love elsewhere, however because of this if you can get good at comedy in Philadelphia, you will be outstanding everywhere else. According to Keith, the best entertainers in the world come from Philly, and the city is becoming an entertainment hub.

Comedy Jawn has its own sponsor with Sucker Punch Pickles. Keith’s company Ruffin Vision Network also founded Philadelphia Comedy College, a ten week course on the art, business & science of stand-up comedy.

Charles Steele performs a set at the Comedy Jawn on Mandy April 18, 2022. Here he is addressing an audience member directly, which is called crowd work.

Jay Simpson performs his unique brand of musical comedy at the Comedy Jawn on Monday April 18, 2022. Jay also started Tighten up Tuesdays and frequently hosts at The Raven Lounge.

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Jake Zenak performs crowd work at the Comedy Jawn on Monday April 18, 2022. Jake asks the audience to rosst him, and also asks them to suggest impressions for him to do. “I can do literally any impression, just name it” Also on Monday’s JJ Mallon’s host an open mic, located right across the street from Comedy Jawn. I caught the tail end and the atmosphere was a small group of people, presumably mostly comics, in a bar with a microphone.

Bonner’s Irish Pub in West Center City gave off a similar feel, which host its mics on Wednesdays.

In these places spillover sound is a real problem and it seems tougher to fully grasp the audience’s attention.

A sticker at JJ Malon’s in Fishtown states this is not New York, on Monday April 18, 2022. Comics compare the Philadelphia comedy scene to New York. Chris Aileo states, “New York is considered the big leagues, Philly is a good city to fail in and get better.”

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Zack Travis performs stand up athe Bonner’s Irish Pub open Mic on Wednesday April 13, 2022. The room is held beside the bar, and had a smaller turn out of mostly comics. There is a distinct divide between those there for the bar and those there for the mic.

A comic signs up for the Open Mic at Tighten Up Tuesdays at 2 Street Pub.in South Philadelphia on April 19, 2022.

Comics get five minute sets, to “tighten up” old material and try out new material.

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The audience at 2 Street Pub laughs at Jay Simpson’s performance on Tuesday April 19, 2022. Jay Simpson started the room at 2 Street and considers it “home base”, where he would even bring his baby, sitting in their stroller behind the nearest table.

George Miller loudly laughs at Jay Simpson’s set at Tighten up Tuesdays on April 19, 2022. George was the host for the second half of the show.

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Newcomers Welcome!

Sage Nwanne performs stand up comedy for the very first time at the Raven Lounge on Thursday April 14, 2022.

At Raven Lounge, newcomers start the night and get three minutes.

Regular sets are five minutes, and showcases, or the night’s featured comedians, get ten minutes. For every show there is a host who welcomes the crowd, tries out some of their own material, and then brings out the comedians.

On April 14, 2022, the host of the night, Lemair Lee, introduced the night’s first comic, Sage Nwanne.

It was his first time and he was terrified, stating “I just hope I don’t pass out”. I talked with him before going on and he explained he was trying out comedy since people think he is funny, and wanted to do what makes him happy.

Sage is only 19 years old and just started a new job doing Tech sales.

Prior to that he was working at Home Depot. He went to college for a little, but decided it was not for him. Sage is from South Jersey and drove up to Philladelphia, along with his whole family, there to support, after a comic told him about The Raven Lounge.

Once Sage was up on stage, he absolutely killed. For the first time on stage, Sage seemed like a seasoned veteran. He had such a grasp of the crowd and by the end he was asking for more time. Following Sage, two additional newcomers had their chance at the mic.

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Shannon Cantan performs a set at the Raven Lounge on Thursday April 21, 2022. Shannon is a blind comic born and raised in Hawaii who came to Philly due to his job as a contractor for the federal government. He just past his four year aniversery doing comedy on the 16th. During his first year of comedy, he would not talk about his blindness, but after an older comic in Orlando told him to talk about what he knows and address the elephant in the room, he has since incorpirated it into his act.

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Hecklers!

I went out to a total of seven open mic nights, and witnessed heckling four of those nights. Raven Lounge made up three of these occasions, and the fourth was at 2 street.

Keith described hecklers as “Anybody who is being a distraction” and heckling is “Anything that stands in the way of comics progression”. He describes they come in different forms, and it is not always the person standing up and booing you. Sometimes heckler’s love you and they think they are helping.

At Tighten Up Tuesdays at 2 Street Pub, there was a heckler who thought he was helping then things turned tense with one joke.

On my third night at the Raven, I witnessed three hecklers in one night. I walked in as the first one was being physically escorted by the bar’s security guard and owner, but did not catch the beginning of the confrontation. The second was a woman loudly speaking on the phone, with noneother than the man who was just thrown out. The third, was a very polite and super friendly woman who just would not A man is escorted from The Raven Lounge by the security guard and the stop joining in. manager of the bar as Epolight Lavelle attempts to continue with their set on Thursday April 21, 2022. The man did not leave quietly and created a Chris Aileo, a comic and Senior tense atmosphere in the room. at Drexel University, commented on dealing with hecklers, “you just have to show to the audience that it doesn’t bother you at all, you have no choice but to address the person and you have to be funny about it.”

Chris explains further that it is a “weird line to walk”, some nights hecklers can ruin the whole atmosphere, and other times it can serve as a free pass to get a few laughs.

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A heckler approaches the stage trying to help Mahei Lukulay record his set using Mahei’s phone,not realizing the set is already being recorded and Mahei needs his phone for his jokes at 2 Street on Tuesday April 19, 2022.

The situation was esculated further after the man found a joke offensive. The photo is a screenshot of the recording of the set.

Chris Aileo address a heckler at the Raven Lounge on Thursday April 14, 2022. Chris has been doing comedy for about a year and works at Helium Comedy Club part time.

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Brendan Donegan performs a showcase set at the Raven Lounge on Thursday April 21, 2022. Brendan stares down the well-meaning heckler that talked through his whole set. He was able to get a lot of laughs from riffing off of her behavior.

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Chanel Ali, a “silly comedian made in Philly” performs a set at the Raven Lounge while the woman who was politely heckling all night points towards the back of the room on Thursday April 21, 2022. Chanel Ali has been featured on Comedy Central, MTV, Tru TV, BET and more.

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The most up to date open mic schedule shared with me from Drew Pabhsky on Friday April 15, 2022. In Philadelphia there is an open mic or comedy event every night of the week.

Overall, after spending late nights with many of Philadelphia’s stand-up comics, talking and sharing laughs, it is obvious that this city’s comedy scene is a close knit family-like community. Going to mics you will see a lot of the same faces every time, with some new ones mixed in. If you do happen to be a new face, like I was, the community is extradonairily welcoming and helpful.

There is a mic every day of the week, and you would be doing yourself a disservice if you did not see how Philly does comedy.

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